The present disclosure relates to a fluorescence image acquisition method, a fluorescence image acquisition program, and a fluorescence image acquisition apparatus, and is preferable for application to, for example, examination of age-related macular degeneration.
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is one of diseases constituting major causes of visual impairment and loss of eyesight, and is classified generally into the exudative type and the atrophic type. The atrophic AMD is a disease in which the yellow spot tissues are gradually atrophied with aging, to cause a lowering in eyesight or the like on a long-term basis. On the other hand, the exudative AMD is a disease in which neovascularization from the choroids occurs at the yellow spot, and, since the newly formed blood vessels are brittle, bleeding occurs under the pigmented layer of retina or under the retina, to cause functional disorders at the yellow spot part.
Normally, the waste products formed by metabolism are digested in the pigmented layer of retina located between the retina and the choroids. However, when the functions of the pigmented layer of retina are lowered with aging, the waste products would not be digested but be accumulated (as drusen) on the Bruch's membrane, resulting in chronic inflammation. In this case, at the inflammation part, an agent capable of promoting neovascularization is released in order to suppress the inflammation. Attendant on this, new blood vessels are generated from the choroids. In this manner, the exudative AMD is brought about.
In view of this, there has been proposed an apparatus for picking up an image of a subject's eyeground and detecting a lesion part, such as waste product, from the eyeground image (see, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2008-295804 hereinafter referred to as Patent Document 1).